The Right Way to Set Up Instagram Ads in 2026 (According to Someone Who's Spent $300M)
Ben Heath's agency has spent over $300M on Meta ads. Here are the foundational things he covers in his 2026 Instagram ads walkthrough — and where I'd add my own take.
I just watched Ben Heath's latest Instagram ads tutorial and had to break this down for you. His agency has spent more than $300 million on Facebook and Instagram ads and generated over $1.2 billion in revenue for clients. This is not a casual YouTuber guessing his way through Ads Manager. This is a practitioner showing you exactly how to do it — and what most beginners get completely wrong.
Here are the key things he covers, plus my own take from running ads for funnels and coaching businesses.
The most expensive audience on Meta isn't a waste of money. It's where your buyers live.
The Three Levels You Need to Understand Before You Touch Anything
In the video, Ben breaks down the structure of every Meta ad campaign: campaign level, adset level, and ad level. Most beginners jump straight to the creative — the image or the video — without understanding how these three layers interact.
- Campaign level: Sets the overall objective and buying type. This is the most important decision you make.
- Adset level: Controls who sees your ad and where (targeting, placements, budget).
- Ad level: The actual creative — what people see and what convinces them to act.
Getting these in the wrong order is how you end up spending $200 on ads and wondering why nothing happened.
Auction vs. Reservation: Start Here
Right at the campaign creation step, you'll be asked to choose a buying type: auction or reservation. Ben recommends auction for almost everyone — it's how most advertisers operate and it means Meta's algorithm determines your cost per thousand impressions (CPM) based on supply and demand. More advertisers competing for your audience = higher prices.
Reservation is for big brands locking in guaranteed impressions. You don't need it.
The Objective Mistake That Burns Most Ad Budgets
This is the insight that Ben explains that I've seen people miss over and over again, and it's the thing I'd double down on the most:
Facebook gives you exactly what you ask for.
If you optimize your campaign for engagement — likes, comments, shares — Meta finds people who engage. Not people who buy. If you optimize for link clicks, you get clickers. Still not buyers. The people most likely to pull out their credit card are in the sales conversions bucket, and yes, those are the most expensive campaigns to run.
I've seen this play out with students in my community. They boost a post at $5/day, get hundreds of likes, and wonder why no one bought. The ad did exactly what it was asked to do — get engagement. The algorithm is not trying to decode your real business goal. You have to tell it explicitly.
If you're just getting started, boosting at $1–5/day is a great way to reduce risk and learn the platform. That's genuinely good advice. But the moment you want buyers, you switch your objective to conversions.
The Learning Method Ben Recommends (That Actually Works)
One thing I appreciated about how Ben teaches this: he tells you to watch the entire tutorial all the way through before you open your ad account and touch anything. Then go back and implement.
That sounds counterintuitive but it's right. When you try to follow along and implement at the same time, you get lost in the interface, miss context, and make settings mistakes that cost you money. Watch first to get the mental map. Implement second with intention.
We use a similar approach when onboarding people to new tools — learn the shape of the thing before you start clicking.
What He's Right About (And What I'd Add)
Ben's framework is solid. The three-level structure, the buying type choice, and the objective selection are the foundations that separate ads that work from ads that burn money.
What I'd add: your offer matters more than your ad. You can have perfect campaign architecture and still get terrible results if what you're sending people to isn't compelling. A good Instagram ad can get the click. But a weak landing page or a bad offer kills the conversion. If your ads aren't working, audit your funnel before you audit your targeting.
The Bottom Line
If you've ever boosted a post and wondered why it didn't translate into leads or sales, Ben's video answers that question directly. The objectives, the structure, and the mindset that Meta serves you what you ask for — these are the things worth getting right first. Start with that, then worry about creative.